More than 2000 young people meet for the “Flashmob” at Lake Garda. This leads to riots, property damage and sexual assaults. In Italy, there are now fears of more such riots – and a victim describes the terrible incident.
After wild riots on Lake Garda, Italy fears further adversity in public places. The incidents of June 2 in the seaside resort of Peschiera, when some drunk young people attacked each other, jumped onto cars and are said to have later sexually molested women on a train, have also occupied politicians for two weeks.
In Italy, the debate on integration has been intensifying again since the beginning of June. According to the findings, a large proportion of the young people and young men who were noticed in Peschiera on the Italian national holiday have a migration background.
Now save articles for later in “Pocket”.
On June 2, more than 2,000 young people from several cities in northern Italy met for a “flash mob” in Peschiera on Lake Garda, which is popular with tourists. The situation escalated: there were fights with injured people and thefts, tourists were harassed, cars and shop windows were demolished. The police had to intervene and remove the pack from the bathing areas. This is also shown by videos on social media. “They smashed everything, smashed shop windows, stormed the tourist train and blocked passers-by on foot or on mopeds,” said a witness. Peschiera’s mayor, Orietta Gaiulli, told the Italian media: “We have seen a day of war.”
After the riots, many young men boarded the train to Milan. Sexual assaults are said to have occurred on the train. According to their own statements, some underage women were harassed and sexually harassed by young men on the way home from the Gardaland amusement park in the completely overcrowded regional train.
Witnesses and victims described the shocking dimensions of the incidents on social media and to the Italian press. As one mother reported: “”My 16-year-old daughter was walking back with some friends, they were surrounded, molested, groped.”
According to the Italian online newspaper “Open”, one of the women affected described the situation on the train as follows: “It was full, it was very hot. We wanted to get out but they stopped us by sounding the alarm. We walked through several wagons and on the way there they grabbed us everywhere. I burst into tears and had a panic attack”. The women were able to leave the train early and filed a complaint. The public prosecutor’s office in Verona is now investigating possible suspects.
Some rioters, often dubbed “baby gangs” by the police and the media in Italy, have already announced further gatherings via social media. Among other things, the Adriatic town of Riccione near Rimini was chosen as a meeting place.
Meanwhile, in Italy, politicians are debating how the riots could have been prevented. Giovanni Dal Cero, mayor of Peschiera’s neighboring municipality of Castelnuovo del Garda, criticized the railway company: “I mean, next time they can call us and say: ‘Gentlemen, a train with an unusual number of people is arriving'”. This is reported by the Italian newspaper “Corriere della Sera”. He also spoke out in favor of more police forces.
On Wednesday, Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese said in Parliament in Rome that she wanted to monitor the situation better, even when potential rioters arrived at Lake Garda. Critics, especially from right-wing parties, then accused her of downgrading a national problem to a local one.
Matteo Salvini from the right-wing Lega distributed a corresponding TikTok video on his Twitter channel. “Violence and threats will not be tolerated here,” he wrote. Lamorgese did not address this in her remarks in the Chamber of Deputies. After consultations with the regional authorities in northern Italy, the minister wants to have the trains equipped with video surveillance, among other things.
With material from dpa
